A Walk on Bald Eagle Mountain
by Larry Kimport
I grew up beneath the northern face of the Bald Eagle ridge, seeing it whenever I walked out my family's back door, played in our yard or fished the Susquehanna. Not long ago, speaking before the Montoursville Historical Society, I pointed out our mountain's singular rocky scar, void of forest, and asked the audience what they thought was the reason. Hands shot up.
"Forest fire" and "airline crash" chimed as fast favorites. Not surprising. The suggestion that the scar was due to an airplane crash was not far off. A plane did once go down in the area just west of the scar - Allegheny Airlines flight 371, bound for Williamsport, slammed into the mountain at 9:47 a.m. on Dec. 1, 1959. Twenty-five of 26 souls perished. The lone survivor was 35-year old Louis Matarazzo, a Philadelphia sporting goods saleman. He was found by rescuers wandering through the forest, severely burned. He returned home to Springfield, a suburb of Philly, after healing in Williamsport Hospital. Then, from a soft-spoken semi-retired, archeological sleuth named Jeff Bohlin came the correct answer: "It's a boulder field."
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